Passes the Bechdel test

Booksmart

Name: Booksmart
Released: 2019

2019. Directed by Olivia Wilde, written by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins and Susanna Fogel.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
13 women characters. 6 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 38 scenes out of 144.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Two academic teenage superstars (Dever, Feldstein) realise, on the eve of their high school graduation, that they should have worked less and played more. Determined to never fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.

Released: 24 May 2019
Genres: Comedy
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.1 / 10
Metascore: 84 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award. 29 wins & 60 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Molly 329 lines, woman
Amy 236 lines, woman
Julie 96 lines, woman
Conor 85 lines, man
Jonathan 59 lines
Mr. Schacter 31 lines, man
Christina 28 lines, woman
Mrs. Carroll 28 lines, woman
Ryan 24 lines, woman
Wesley 17 lines

Full cast, 28 people

Kaitlyn Dever as Amy
Beanie Feldstein as Molly
Jessica Williams as Miss Fine
Jason Sudeikis as Principal Brown
Lisa Kudrow as Charmaine
Will Forte as Doug
Victoria Ruesga as Ryan
Mason Gooding as Nick
Skyler Gisondo as Jared
Diana Silvers as Hope
Molly Gordon as Triple A
Billie Lourd as Gigi
Eduardo Franco as Theo
Nico Hiraga as Tanner
Austin Crute as Alan
Noah Galvin as George
Michael Patrick O'Brien as Pat the Pizza Guy
Ben Harris as Yacht Waiter
Kyle Samples as Butler
Deb Hiett as George's Mom
Bluesy Burke as Cindy
Christopher Avila as Rob
Stephanie Styles as Alison
John Hartman as Yacht Waiter #2
Adam Krist as Dick
Gideon Lang as Skip
Ellen Doyle as Murder Mystery Nurse
Maya Rudolph as Motivational Voice (voice)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 12% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 144

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	7	0
4 to 6	2	0
7 to 9	6	0
10 to 12	16	0
13 to 15	23	3
16 to 18	24	18
19 to 21	37	16
22 to 24	5	0
25 to 27	21	12
28 to 30	21	0
31 to 33	17	8
34 to 36	37	0
37 to 39	38	0
40 to 42	33	0
43 to 45	23	0
46 to 48	41	5
49 to 51	9	2
52 to 54	9	0
55 to 57	11	7
58 to 60	34	5
61 to 63	4	3
64 to 66	24	5
67 to 69	6	2
70 to 72	0	0
73 to 75	17	1
76 to 78	4	1
79 to 81	26	0
82 to 84	23	2
85 to 87	6	0
88 to 90	46	3
91 to 93	14	2
94 to 96	0	1
97 to 99	3	0
100 to 102	8	4
103 to 105	25	0
106 to 108	4	0
109 to 111	13	0
112 to 114	15	12
115 to 117	45	0
118 to 120	17	0
121 to 123	1	2
124 to 126	1	1
127 to 129	4	5
130 to 132	4	3
133 to 135	16	5
136 to 138	8	5
139 to 141	18	4
142 to 144	21	5

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

MOLLY: So...what do you think? AMY: I don’t know. I’m nervous. MOLLY: This is the moment we’ve been working towards. AMY: Our whole lives.

MOLLY: And we are the Chinese Club. MOLLY: I am encouraged by the progress of our special economic zone in Shenzen. MOLLY: We do so much stuff. AMY: SO much stuff.

MOLLY: So what are we worried about? AMY: College admissions are unpredictable. Thousands of top students are turned away every year. MOLLY: So it’s statistically possible that we won’t get in. AMY: At least we’ll know that we tried our best.

AMY: Save Darfur! Sign this petition. Get a button. AMY: This is important! AMY: Karen! Karen! AMY: Ryan! Do I - no. I um - do you want to... save Darfur?

DANA: I am super excited to talk about the most important day of your life. Prom. DANA: Our lives will never be the same again. This is a memory that we all share, cool people and dorks. MOLLY: Our job today is to nominate and vote on prom themes. Keep in mind these should be themes we all can enjoy.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 85 are women's.

787 lines from women, 142 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

13 women and 15 men in the cast. 6 women and 1 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 6 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 84% of the words (6,910), men 16% (1,321). Women have 85% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

12 of the 17 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 41% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Olivia Wilde (woman)
Written by: Emily Halpern (woman), Sarah Haskins (woman), Susanna Fogel (woman), Katie Silberman (woman)
Produced by: David Distenfeld (man), Chelsea Barnard (gender not listed), Megan Ellison (woman), Katie Silberman (woman), Jessica Elbaum (woman)
Shot by: Jason McCormick (man)
Edited by: Jamie Gross (woman), Brent White (man)
Music by: Dan the Automator (man)
Production design by: Katie Byron (woman)
Costumes by: April Napier (woman)
Cast by: Allison Jones (woman)